Unit:
Department of History and ArchaeologyLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Barlagianni Panagiota
Dissertation committee:
Κωνσταντίνος Κοπανιάς, Αν. Καθηγητής, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Γεωργία Κουρτέση-Φιλιππάκη, Ομ. Καθηγήτρια, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Νικόλαος Ευστρατίου, Ομ. Καθηγητής, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Α.Π.Θ.
Ιωάννης Παπαδάτος, Αν. Καθηγητής, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Luca Peyronel, Full Professor, Departement of Literary Studies, Philology and Liguistics, University of Milan
Anna Gomez Bach, Assoc. Professor, Departement of Prehistory, Autonomous Unicersity of Barcelona
Νένα Γαλανίδου, Καθηγήτρια, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
Original Title:
Intramural and Extramural Burial Practices during the Ubaid Period: Social Implications and Beliefs.
Translated title:
Intramural and Extramural Burial Practices during the Ubaid Period: Social Implications and Beliefs.
Summary:
The main purpose of the present research is to investigate first how death was viewed and treated and then how this concept was developed in the ever-expanding society of the Ubaid Culture. The question is approached by a holistic examination of the burial assemblages. The main source of information throughout has been the publication from each site. The burials of Tepe Gawra are presented in a revised state here, since the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology gave me access to search the archives of the excavation.
The case studies to now have suggested that Ubaid burial rituals are diverse and thus hard to detect. To elucidate a single and specific interpretation that applies uniformly to all Ubaid burials is problematic, because of the extended geographical and chronological framework involved.
A thorough examination of the Ubaid burials reveals regional variations in the mortuary practice and external influences. To this end, a crucial aspect is recognizing differences that exist in the funerary procedures found on the one hand in cemeteries and on the other at on-site burials. It is possible to detect attitudes towards the afterlife. A second very important concern in this study revolves around the validity or the degree of validity of the proposed models of social organization.
The absolute shortage of non-pottery and exotic artifacts deposited, as displayed by both Ubaid intramural and extramural graves, hints at a gloomy netherworld. The absence of every previous possession enjoyed in life may imply their pointlessness in the afterlife. As the Ubaid funeral signifies equality in death, with everyone perhaps peers in afterlife, then ancestor worship may have been foreign to their belief-structure too. After the conclusion of the burial the dead faded into oblivion.
However, Ubaid ritual values are diverse throughout this vast area. Ubaid original ideologies are hard to detect in north Syria and southeast Anatolia. Distinction in mortuary practices surely supposes distinction in social lifestyle. The proposition of all Mesopotamia being under a common set of administrative, ideological and cultural principles would demand a long period of interregional interaction to be ongoing, which only began to experience during the Ubaid Period and achieved towards its end.
Main subject category:
Archaeology
Keywords:
Mesopotamia, Ubaid Period, Burial practices, Social organization, Afterlife
Number of index pages:
170
Number of references:
1573
File:
File access is restricted until 2025-01-09.
Barlagianni-Burial_Practice_in_the_Ubaid_Period.pdf
10 MB
File access is restricted until 2025-01-09.
